Police Now Arresting Photographers Over “Esthetic Values”

In California, detaining photographers for taking photos with “no apparent esthetic value” is now official Long Beach Police Department policy. Said “value” will be determined on a case by case basis on the spot, whenever a cop starts harassing photographers for not engaging in “regular tourist behavior” because they just might be terrorists.

After Long Beach Post contributor Sander Roscoe Wolff was detained for taking photographs of a refinery for an assignment in June, police Chief Jim McDonnell just wanted to clear up those “misplaced beliefs that photography is in and of itself a suspicious activity.” Of course not. It’s only suspicious if a police officer with no specific training in the aesthetics of photography thinks there is no aesthetics to your photography.